Cruises revamp alchol policies after tragedies

[GottaCruz]

Posted on Sun, Jul. 02,

CRUISE LINES

Cruise lines reconsider alcohol policiesBY AMY MARTINEZ

aemartinez@MiamiHerald.com

What the cruise lines are doing

Cruise lines are taking another look at their alcohol policies after negative publicity surrounding missing passengers

Lynsey O'Brien was just 15 years old when she persuaded a bartender aboard the Costa Magica cruise ship to serve her cocktails at a bar not far from where her parents ate dinner.

Six months later, the schoolgirl is a cause celebre for underage drinking in her hometown of Dublin, Ireland, and a catalyst for several changes at Italy-based Costa Crociere.

O'Brien managed to be served four or five alcoholic drinks before plunging from a 7th floor balcony into the dark waters off Mexico. Whether she committed suicide or fell in a drunken stupor remains a mystery. Her body never was found.

But Costa soon required crew members to attend a two-day training course designed to stop underage drinking. Also, the cruise line, which has a sales and marketing office in Hollywood, began handing out letters to passengers asking for their help making sure children aren't able to buy alcohol.

Cruise lines have worked hard since their modern-day incarnation to project an image of fun, and it's one they hope to protect. Plus, they make a lot of money selling alcohol. And yet, cruise lines are reevaluating their alcohol policies after coming under scrutiny for incidents in which passengers went overboard following a night of heavy drinking. Some of the negative publicity has portrayed drinking on cruise ships as out of control.

Miami-based Royal Caribbean International recently did away with a policy allowing passengers between 18 and 21 to drink wine and beer so long as a parent or guardian signed a waiver. Now, only passengers 21 and up are allowed alcohol on cruises departing North America.

One of the catalysts: a damning report in April on the TV tabloid Inside Edition. Undercover reporters filmed spring breakers on a Royal Caribbean ship drinking to the point of passing out. One young man relieved himself on a pool deck after chugging beer.

HARD HIT

''I think they were appalled,'' said Lawrence Kaye, a California attorney who represents the cruise industry. Royal Caribbean, hard hit from the scrutiny surrounding missing passengers, also is providing more training to help crew members tell when someone has had too much to drink. ''Everybody unfortunately learns from tragedies,'' Kaye said.

The most notorious missing-passenger incident involves handsome Connecticut honeymooner George Smith, whose July 2005 disappearance from a Royal Caribbean ship is under investigation by the FBI and is popular fodder for cable TV news shows.

Smith was believed to be drunk from absinthe, an exceptionally potent alcoholic drink, before tumbling from a private balcony into the Aegean Sea. The drink is so potent, in fact, that Royal Caribbean does not serve it, raising the likelihood that Smith or another passenger smuggled it onboard.

''My son was on his honeymoon having a good time. Maybe he did drink to excess,'' said Smith's mother, Maureen Smith.

Although Royal Caribbean did not serve her son the absinthe, she said, he managed to drink it in the ship's disco with crew members nearby. Maureen Smith is part of a lawsuit filed last week in Miami-Dade Circuit Court accusing Royal Caribbean of inflicting emotional distress.

She said the cruise line had a duty to make sure her son made it safely back to his cabin rather than let him leave with several ''random'' men. She believes he was then murdered and his body thrown overboard.

''Four young men did help him, and God knows what happened,'' she said.

In O'Brien's case, Costa issued her a card for onboard spending that mistakenly did not include the ''double star'' mark identifying her as a minor. The letter that Costa began handing out urges parents to check their children's cards for the tell-tale mark. Also, Costa fired the bartender who sold her the drinks.

The purpose of the two-day training program, developed by the National Restaurant Association, was to reinforce Costa's underage drinking policy, said Lynn Torrent, CEO of Costa Cruise Lines NV, the North American marketing arm. Crew members who successfully completed the program received a certificate, Torrent said in a statement.

LETTING LOOSE

For as long as cruise ships have been around, they've appealed to vacationers who want to let loose of their inhibitions. Beginning with the popular 1970s TV show The Love Boat, cruise ships have been portrayed as cures for a bad sex life or humdrum everyday existance. They walk a fine line between ensuring passengers' safety and fostering a good time, Kaye said. ''This is not a prison camp. It's a cruise ship,'' he added.

But families of missing passengers argue that cruise lines are financially driven to encourage passengers to drink up. Cruise lines make a good chunk of their money from selling alcohol, which unlike most of the food consumed onboard, is not covered by the ticket price. At the same time, waiters and bartenders make most of their money from tips.

''They push, push, push alcohol. It's not to their advantage to care if someone is drinking a little too much,'' said Brett Rivkind, a Miami lawyer who represents the Smith family and serves as legal counsel to a new group called International Cruise Victims.

MORE THAN USUAL

''Then you have people who feel they can consume a little more than usual because they're on a cruise ship and don't have to get in a car and drive home,'' Rivkind said.

Rivkind represents the family of another missing passenger, Daniel DiPiero, 21, of Canfield, Ohio. DiPiero was vacationing with friends aboard Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas in May when he disappeared.

A statement released by his family said he apparently fell after getting sick and leaning over a railing on the ship's fourth deck, where he had passed out. Royal Caribbean has said that DiPiero and his three roommates smuggled liquor onboard, concealing some of it in mouthwash bottles. Royal Caribbean also said they videotaped themselves drinking in the hours before his disappearance.

Cases like DiPiero's raise the issue of personal responsibility, Kaye said. ''Do the cruise lines have the ability to take out every bottle and see what's in it? Of course not,'' he said. ``Passengers should be responsible to follow the rules.''

Even so, Kaye said, most cruise lines are reevaluating their alcohol policies in the wake of such cases. Added Michael Crye, president of the International Council of Cruise Lines, an Arlington, Va., trade group: ''We are redoubling our efforts to train our crew and enforce the drinking ages.'' Crye said there's little else cruise lines can do.

''People go on cruises to enjoy themselves. To tell them they're limited to two drinks or some set amount would diminish the experience,'' Crye said. ``At the end of the day, it depends on the good faith of people who purchase tickets.''

MORE RESPONSIBILITY

But Rivkind said there's more cruise lines can do, including beefing up their security and escorting inebriated passengers from bars. In DiPiero's case, he was cut off at one bar aboard the ship, but he then went to another bar and managed to keep drinking, Rivkind said. ''No effort was made to escort him back to his room,'' he said.

[JoeyandDavid]

What the cruise lines are attempting to accomplish is all well and good but in regards to underage drinking I put the blame totally on the parent.

The parent made the decision to book the cruise.. the parent made the decision that they would allow their child to go UN supervised...

Yes yes yes i understand the blah the blah cruise line responsibilty...my point

true parenting NEVER takes a vacation..

Once again jmho

joey

[Suzila]

I feel terrible for Maureen Smith losing her son, but I think she's grasping at straws in her lawsuit.

Royal Caribbean doesn't serve what he was drinking, he was a grown man, on his honeymoon, and if you're on your honeymoon, you should be spending time with your brand new wife...especially at that time of the evening. Where was she at the time he was getting drunk and had to be escorted back to the room by 'random men'?, and why was she found on the other side of the ship, passed out? Why did she have to be escorted back to the room by strangers...why wasn't she with her brand new husband? Why did they go on a honeymoon cruise...to be apart from each other?

He was in the disco drinking, with crew members nearby. Were they supposed to check a grown man's drink? Tell him he shouldn't be drinking that specific drink? Tell him to stop having a great time?

The lawsuit says Royal Caribbean inflicted emotional distress. Did RCI, or did her son do that on his own? Was he an adult and responsible for himself, or is the cruise line responsible for this customer behaving poorly?

The mother says it herself: 'Four young men did help him'. The truth is we don't really know what happened to him, but from the reports we've all read, neither bride nor groom behaved admirably. They actually did behave like children, let loose for the first time on their own.

As far as the 21 year old who went missing from the ship...wasn't he 'supervised' by a 25 year old? I say the word 'supervised', but at that age, it doesn't matter how old they are. A 25 year old doesn't, or can't 'supervise a 21 year old. That cruise line policy is ridiculous. At 21, a person is considered an adult. No amount of 'supervising' could have stopped this 21 year old from over-drinking. Wasn't he a college kid? And isn't it a usual thing for them to drink themselves into oblivion? Weren't there videos showing them all getting drunk in the room?

And the 15 year old? I agree completely with you Joey. No way that kid should have been left to be on her own and been able to order drinks. Either she should have been with her parents, or in a cruise camp, where they could have been monitoring what she was drinking.

[SKAOLboy]

links to the inside edition articals....

part 1:

http://www.insideedition.com/ourstories/re...spx?storyid=167

part 2:

http://www.insideedition.com/ourstories/re...spx?storyid=170

[schatje]

I agree with Joey....where are the parents? I've seen too many kids just wondering around the ship (running..playing on the elevator). Do some parents think that that the ship itself is a day care? Maybe with some of the things that have been happening the parents will think twice about where their children are. Atleast we can hope.

[btate]

I don't want to sound rude in that every person who is described in each of these articles made the concious decision to do what they did. Each of them individually made the decision to drink whatever they did and did it without being forced in any way. I don't know the details of each incident and was not there. I DO know what happens on a cruise and can say that I never felt uncomfortable and myself made concious decisions to be a responsible parent for each of my 4 children who went with me. Hopefully my children can learn from the fatal mistakes of others and don't need first hand experience in tragety.

I do have friends who have chosen to drink irresponsibily and have either killed someone behind the wheel of a car or been killed themselves. I don't see the parents of these people going after the bars or the automakers in a law suit? . . .

In the end, many of these people who are not responsibile for their own actions may have been tragically killed in another way at a later date. They just happened to be on a cruise when they chose to make a poor decision.

Am I wrong in my opinions here?

[Longboysfan]

I have seen another side.

Adults - non related - buying drinks for underage people.

Nothing much the line can do there.

[KarenUK]

Everyone has made valid points about this - the end result is that people are responsible for their own - or childrens - drinking.

A cruise line cannot be held responsible for a few incidents involving drink - how many hotels get sued when drunken youths try jumping into pools from their balconies & miss or car hire compaies for when drunken people drive their hired scooters on holiday & crash?? they all result in people being hurt or killed & cause distress for others & I am sure cruise lines have less than average incidents compared to the hotels that attract young adults!